Land-Grant Bills  "Blocked By Southern Politicians"

The sectionalism that divided the United States before the Civil War concerned more than just slavery, states' rights, and protective tariffs. Opinions differed on either side of the geographical split between the North and the South over the disposition of land owned by the federal government. In the decade before the war, three land-grant measures that had strong Northern support were defeated by Southern politicians.

A homestead act would have made free western land available to unemployed working men and given them a chance to be independent landowners and farmers. Laborers who did not move west to take advantage of the free land would also benefit because with less competition for jobs, they could demand higher wages. Southern politicians, fearing the West would be filled with non-slaveholders from the more populous North, voted against the measure. "Better for us", said a Mississippian, "that these territories should remain a waste, a howling wilderness, trod only by red hunters than be so settled."

In February 1859, a homestead act was passed in the House, but it was defeated in the Senate when Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky cast the tie-breaking vote. The next Congress passed the act in both the House and the Senate, but it was then vetoed by President James Buchanan.

A transcontinental railroad act was another land-grant measure that was repeatedly defeated by Southern politicians. Their major disagreement with the project, which would have enabled the country to tap the vast wealth of the West, was that the eastern terminus of the railroad was expected to be at St. Louis of Chicago and not a Southern city.

Southerners also blocked a land-grant college act, which would have provided government-owned land to states for the establishment of agricultural and mechanical schools. Again Southern politicians believed Northerners would derive more benefit from the schools than would Southerners.

Fascinating Fact:  The homestead act that was vetoed by Buchanan had passed the House 115 to 65. Of the votes for the measure, 114 came from Northern politicians; 64 of the "nays" came from the Southerners.


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